bottling from keg question

[Jrock817]

hello all, im looking for some advice. when i carbonate my keg with c02, i always make it as cold as possible to absorb the highest amount of gas.

when i go to bottle, i try to cool the bottles, and prevent over bubbling while bottling. i want to know, if i let the keg warm up, will i get less bubbling? or should i leave it cold, and just deal with the loss of beer from overflow?

my tubing is about 3 feet long, and i leave the pressure very low when filling bottles, but the suds are always overwhelming, it takes a long time to bottle a 5 gallon keg, and i always end up losing at least 3-4 bottles worth from overflow.

 

[Yooper]

If the keg (beer) warms up, it will foam more. Colder beer foams less.

You just need longer beer line to bottle with, as well as a counter-pressure technique. How are you filling the bottles?

I'd stick the bottles (sanitized) in the freezer and fill them when they are cold, as well as the beer cold, but use a 10' line (or longer) to fill.

If you don't have a Blichmann beergun (perfect for this type of bottling), then a homemade one would work pretty well: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

 

[Jrock817]

Thank you, I'm definitely gonna get a longer line and try that for my next batch, getting bottled next week. I'm just gonna leave the bottles outside in the New England winter after I sanitize and cover them

 

[BigFloyd]

Carbonate at the same temp at which you'll be serving. The point isn't to force the beer to absorb the highest amount of gas, but to get it to absorb the right amount to get the carb level you want. With the 12ft beer lines I use, 38-39*F and 11-12psi for a couple of weeks works great.

For filling bottles with already carbonated beer from the keg, you need to put together one of these - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/. It's inexpensive and works quite well. I bottle from my kegs regularly using that setup and I can fill the bottle up all the way with very little foam.

 

[Jrock817]

Well, I think I figured it out. Definitely longer line, and I was overcarbing the beer. I had a chart that was waaaaaay off with temp adjustment. I looked a new one up the other day and it was quite a bit lower psi to achieve the volumes of c02 I was looking for. My RISK is in the keg and carbonated at the right temperature and pressure, and it pours fantastic. Thanks for all the tips, definitely upgrading my ghetto beer gun for something more sophisticated.